Leadership is defined many ways by many people. It depends on the culture, the political climate, what is being led, who is being led, and what is the risk. Leadership in the military looks much different than leadership in Corporate America, leadership in the home looks much different than leadership in a fraternity, leadership on a football team looks much different than leadership in the boy scouts. If this is true, why does most of the leadership books in reference to the church look more like Corporate America. The church is an organism not an institution. I have said that before and I didn’t coin the term. Leadership in the Body of Christ is diametrically opposed to Leadership in the “Gentile” or “secular world”. The rules don’t apply, the outcome is not the same, the people aren’t numbers, and the end goal is not the same. Jesus makes this clear in Matthew 23.
Let me say this again before I dive into this. And If you would hear me say this you would here the intensity and the passion in my voice. We don’t borrow, AT ALL, principles of leadership from the world! We just don’t do it at all. Carnegie, Maxwell, Welch, Jobs, Gates and others corporate gurus can give us NO INSIGHT to biblical leadership and leading the flock of God. I do mean none! I hope I have conveyed this clearly. It scares me when I see John Maxwell books in pastors offices, or Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, books like “The Art of War” and men like Stephen Covey can give us no input on leading God’s church. Have I drove that point enough? The World and the Church are not two cars on the same road, one is a boat and the other a helicopter and they are headed in different directions. Again I hope I am clear. I hate for people to tell me “well the world has something good to offer, and to no borrow from the world is foolish”. Tell that to Jesus then. Because He doesn’t spend his time borrowing wisdom from the Roman Empire nor the Jewish elite to build the Church. If that is the case neither shall we. I am not saying the world has nothing offer, but I am saying in this arena of leadership we are to borrow nothing. Our Lord has given us enough and it is a “drink from the fire hydrant”.
This will be an 12 part series. The second one is dedicated to Mr. Alan Knox for providing me feedback on something I had to present to the Leaders of Lifeline Bible Fellowship which is where I submit, serve, and grow. I have been given the privilege to serve as the Leadership Captain (we have 4 ships: Fellowship, Discipleship, Worship & Leadership). Our hope is to see everyone through the first three ships and plant them in the 4thship in order to equip them to serve in the one of the four as God has gifted them. Calvin Clark (our Senior Pastor) came up with the acrostic I manipulated it a bit so that I can apply what I have learned and what I am learning to it. Here are the 10 (the 11th will be the first), Love, Encourage, Appeal, Delegate, Expository, Reproduce, Servant, Humility, Integrity and Prayer. The 11th one will be Relationships. And a visual would show the acrostic Leadership going vertically and encompassed by the word Relationship. This is why I am against most what goes on today in Christianity. The leaders today have a chasmbetween them and those they are called to serve (leadership is synonymous with servanthood in the Kingdom of God, who does Jesus say will be the greatest?). So my next post will cover relationship and then the acrostic. I would love your feedback and pray that you would see the Lord Jesus in all that I say. Christ is our example of leadership and if we want to lead God’s people, God’s way, then Jesus is the answer key to the test, we need no outside influences. Why? Because no one has loved the Church quite like Jesus. No one laid his life down for her, no one intercedes, no one condescending to the lowest position to redeem her, and no one else care for her like He does. He promises her that she will feast with Him in eternity, so why borrow from someone who knows little to nothing about her, to lead her? This is foolish to me but I will digress.
Hey Lionel,
I am loving this. I have misunderstood some things in the past about leadership, it is a great thing to see you break this thing down. Returning our focus back to the biblical way of doing things. I pray for you in this endeavour. May His grace be with!
Karsten Miller
Thanks KM,
You are a great encouragement.
Lionel,
I love that acrostic! May I use it? I romise I will send you and your Pastor a royalty fee. LOL But seriously I would love to use it for something I am working on at my own home church if allowed.
*promise
Carey,
Everything here is copyrighted by the Holy Spirit, since He gives freely its your to do as you please.
If those who accept the responsibility to express their love for God through the service of caring for others will shift from authoritative control based on doctrine, to feeding and tending the hearts of human beings guided by the inherent life in the Word of God, coupled with authentically expressing that life in their words, leadership will produce maturity. Further, an atmosphere like you describe in the previous post, where people openly share, can become a mutually shared stake in everyone gaining this maturity. It is powerful for bringing the love of God out of the abstact and into our daily lives as a community of believers.
DED,
I am a theology nut. I love the stuff, all of the ologys, different theological systems, complex academic thought, I love it all and enjoy it; however for those who teach it most came from the Reformation, which came from Roman Catholicism and you can tell where I am going. Many of the great preachers, teachers, and authors I read quite a bit. My library has a good amount of the books out today, but when it comes to ecclesiology I am quite a distance away from them.
As I was looking for a church home with my wife and son (we were leaving the place I talked about in the post for reasons I repented of and came back) I noticed something. The gathering was so programmed and structured that I felt uncomfortable. No real life sharing within the gathering that had to be done outside. No particpation that was for bible studies, no Sunday had to run as crisp as possible and as you know nonbelievers don’t like disorganization right?
So I realized back in October of last year that something in me was different and that is why I didn’t fit in. I could find much wrong everywhere but it wasn’t so much that they were wrong but that my views on Church had changed (not to mention that I had been reading a bunch of stuff on house churches and particaptory testimonies). So I know I can’t go to a “tradtional” church in anyway. I pray that our current gathering would keep this style as we grow in number (if we grow) I don’t know what we will do. I guess that is something I need to start asking. Anyway just me two cents.
I first encountered John Maxwell material while working in a company that epitomized everything we are called to not be as followers of Christ. It functioned by using deceptive marketing practices to lure in potential customers, and used their employees as fodder for their marketing machine, squeezing as much productivity as could out of them before discarding them, whether that took a day or a year…. The #2 guy in the company was pushing those of us in any kind of management to read John C. Maxwell. For a while he tried holding weekly “training meetings”, where we were supposed to discuss a chapter a week out of one of his books (I forget which one…).
It was a pretty low time in my life…
When later I was browsing through a local Christian bookstore and saw every release from Maxwell prominantly displayed towards the front, I was shocked. At that point I had no concept of organic faith, or what the difference between that and the corporate model of church is, but I knew that something was horribly wrong…
If business people who lie, cheat, and treat other human beings like expendable resources, all for the sake of getting ahead, can read an author like John Maxwell and not feel an ounce of conviction, but rather justification, for what they are doing, than maybe that should tell us something about whether we should have books like that on the shelves of our churches and homes…..
Daniel
So what I am getting from your post Lionel is that we can take some stuff from the corporate world but not everything?
LOL
Seriously, I will look forward to the series. FYI, I am in the middle of a 30 part series on leadership. So far I have covered the 5 aspects of Faith, the 5 aspects of Integrity and I am part way through the 5 aspects of Commitment. Eventually I will get to Accountability and Incarnation. Maybe you can find something decent in all that stuff 🙂
Again, look forward to reading along brother!
Interesting view Lionel. You have managed to hit another bomb or dropped another bomb. I have never read any Maxwell books but have seen it on many pastors shelves. I always thought the dude was a Christian.
Brother I see you have made a transition into leading a class on leadership. Brother many can learn from your teaching man. You have a been a challenging voice on the web for clarity. Continued on in the next movement brother. I look forward to seeing what the teaching holds.
Lionel,
Thanks for the “dedication”. I thought of you when I read this blog post: LeaderMan vs. Servant Leader.
-Alan
The funny thing about it is, John Maxwell was a pastor for a long time while writing these leadership books. He also was leading a church in conjunction with doing seminars. I too, at first was mesmerized by his charisma, but it does fall short of the main point of the gospel. As a future MBA, I understand why these things resinate with some. The only thing that I began to realize is that when it comes to governing some of the business affairs of the church, he and others may have a point. Being part of the body does not release us from the repsonsibility to act with wisdom. I dont think he or the others have any good thing to add to soul winning or gospel preaching. The church should not look like a corporation, but has some elements of it that must be run in a shrewd manner. Not ungodly, but wisely.
Leaders of the church should never lose the servant mentality, but must understand true biblical stewardship means returning to Jesus more than what He entrusted you with from the beginning. (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:12-27). I have now seen the need for people to operate in their true giftings and not assume that everyone is to be a pastor/elder/overseer. Some people are to be managers, and CEO’s, but to do it as a servant to Christ first and then return the overage of goods to the body for disbursement to those in need after their needs have been met. (2 Corinthians 8:14-16).
This is just a taste. We could go on, but at a later time.
Larry,
I was with you until this brother:
Can you elaborate please?
Hey Brian,
Actually I have to teach this from the “pulpit” as the vision for our church and those who desire to be in leadership. It won’t be a class, it will be a teaching. I am tyring to pray for ways for this to be interactive.
Joe,
Just a little bit. LOL! I will definitely follow your series a bit closer and steal, oh I mean borrow from it. LOL.
Lionel,
I guess this is a good stretch for you from God. I have been there for a minute. It has been three weeks and I just came up with the concept yesterday on how to engage the people.
So God id faithful to give us the insight to accomplish the task he has for us. But I like this look for you brother. I think it is a good look for you and a outstanding way to share the gospel and teaching.
Larry,
I agrre with you in the church needs to use wisdom in conducting some business related matters of the church. But there is a fine line that must be walked to accomplished this task. We can’t get to bogged down on the money aspect and lose the extremme focus of building disciples. When the focus is good business practice you can get caught up in the debt to profit ratio. This is when the churches start to house the money in the banks for no particular purpose or what they call rainy day money. Can it be done yes? But you must be very clear that the focus is to honor God and not to develop sound business practices. Now you can honor God with good, sound business practices but it must not be the intent because I asure you that your church or the church will start to focus more on the money than the people, ie. World Changers Church.
You will figure it our before it is all said and done.
Thanks Brian,
You said something that I really wanted to elaborate on, and I may have to do it in a different post (acutally one of the 11 will cover this in some detail). It was this:
This is where I say no. You see this practice is either Old Covenantal (the storehouse) or making a description a prescription (Acts 4). Either way it is wrong. I am not saying we shouldn’t give to the local church but most churches run like business and didn’t Jesus rebuke such a thing with turned over tables and whips? However I walk into most churches and they are selling coffee, selling christian t-shirts and everything else they can sale. We have money invested in different types of investment vehicles and churches have balance sheets and income statements. Are we serious? We should keep track, we should be wise with stewarding the resources people entrust to us, but what I see is a corporation mentality with people being “laid off” and 401K plans and the like. I struggle with this greatly when our brothers and sisters in smaller less “profitable” churches are stuggling to meet the needs of each believer in their flock. Just my two cents and I am off my soapbox now.
As far as the tithing fiasco goes I agree but there is a leve l of stewardship that is required from the local church as it relates to money and resources.
the businessran churches i would not support in any form but missional churches with the ehart of the people on their mind I have no problem.
You also forgot the selling of tapes and cd’s. It is amazing they claim that the message is life altering but they never give it away.
Hey Brian,
That is why I said this:
We should keep track, we should be wise with stewarding the resources people entrust to us,
Oh yeah, but Pharmaceutical companies don’t give away life saving medicine either. So we should charge like them right? It cost us money to produce those tapes and CD’s (although the equipment was purchased with your tithes and offerings LOL).
My bad I missed that part….What do you think about the way Piper and his crew conduct themselves in their presentaion of the word. If you wanto give then give and we will send you a the message or the cd. But if you want to purchase it then it cost this much. But you can download it for free if you choose.
I would not give any money to any “church”, I give money directly to church planting missionaries whose goal is to move on once the church is planted, scripture translation, organizations that preach the gospel through the opportunities that arise as they drill clean water wells for the poorest people on the planet, those in need from within my immediate family and from without.
Why give it to a middle man who might use it inappropriately?
Do you brothers see a distinction between media sales that enrich the gathered congregation versus those that merely enrich the speaker?
What do you think about cooperative ministry, where congregations pool their resources for missionary deployment? Obviously, this requires resource management.
Hutch,
Certainly, one should discern the godliness of the “middle man.” However, would agree that in some cases “two is better than one?” – meaning groups of Christians can often pursue goals more efficiently than individual believers and congregations?
Smithbaptist,
Let me ask you a question. What if you and your wife worked. You guys purchased groceries for the family. After your wife cooked she charged your $10 per plate for “family enrichment”. What would you say?
I think that there is a major difference. If I am out to enrich the gathering congregation then I will be inclined to give the items away. If i think that the message is that life transforming then why would I hoard the material for myselfand for the sake of getting paid.
These cats have done exactly what the word tell us not to do which is to make merchandise of the word.
For we are not as many, which make merchandise of the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ.
— 2 Corinthians 2:17
As far as the resource management goes there is an accountablity factor that will always play close to home for the believers. Congregations pooling their money together for missionary work is similar to the church in Acts laying their money at the apostle’s feet. Now unlike what we have today these guys were dedicated to building community and disciples for Christ. So if we have people who are doing as Hutch has said then I am all for it.
I would say I can cook my own food!!!!(LOL)
Smithbaptist,
Let me ask you another question. What is the purpose of giving for? Should tithe and offering go towards buildings, salaries, landscaping, and to keep the storehouse levels up, while special giving (another offering basket) be used for missionaries? How about using what we have for what it is for? To make disciples.
Discple making now is equated to satellites, buidlings, mortgages and pretty landscaping.
Let me ask another question Brian and Smithbaptist.
If we want to use Acts 4 as a foundation to pool our resources. What was the money used for? Anybody?
smithbaptist-
Yes, those are all options that each Christian can decide before the Lord to participate in-my response was more in light of the “churches” who waste upwards of 80% or more of the funds they collect on everything but what the New Covenant scriptures indicate our resources should be used for, although I am all for proper investing of our personal resources, the idea that offerings would sit in investment accounts gaining a ROI is repugnant to me.
NT giving was and is for the immediate need.
Give it and spend it I say, buy the food, drill the well, relieve the suffering and use it as a spring board to share the hope that resides within us.
Like I said to build community and make disciples.
as well as everyday needs of the people
Oh, I feel that all (tithes, offering, etc) should go towards disciple-making.
In your wife example, I agree. Earlier, when Piper and others were mentioned, I thought you meant media sales to those outside of the local fellowship (those who have not already paid for the production of the items).
By the way, many congregations of various sizes, have sermon/teaching reproduction that is not supported by the offerings and so they try to “cover” the costs of producing the CDs, DVDs, etc.
You certainly can find congregations whose resource allocation has excluded/neglected disciple-making. Too many are in debt for non-essentials to the disciple-making process. Buildings, salaries, and anything (especially fancy landscaping) should be put to the test of its contribution to the congregation’s goal of making disciples.
Many are bad stewards, but many are seeking to be worthy stewards. I have especially noticed churches that refuse to incur debt. Also, there are churches that will not let facility expenses exceed a certain percentage of their tithes and offering in order that the majority of funds can be directly linked to disciple-making materials or functions.
Hey Lionel, how come sometimes I get a feed from your blog that shows you wrote a new post, and then I click the link and it goes nowhere? This has happened several times now, and I’m wondering what’s up.
Did you write a post titled ” A Series Interruption to Ask A Serious Question: Exactly What is the Narrow Door/Way?”
Cuz if so, where is it? If not, who did? Either way, it’s showing up on my blog under A Better Covenant. Pretty weird. I’m kinda confused here, I’m definately no pro with computers….
Help me!………… Daniel
Hey SB,
I guess I can agree, but with technology you can make them pay for their own CD’s and DVD’s and allow your content to travel for a small amount of money. If I am allowing streaming for my congregation it takes nothing for someone else to jump on and join (especially with the blogsphere).
I say the majority has. Just because they don’t incur debt doesn’t mean they aren’t properly stewarding the resources. When I see funds collected for 10 years and fundraisers to erect 20-40MM dollar buildings yeah they may not have incurred debt but they kept the disciple making resources that was to be a funnel and built extravagant buildings with it. These are even men I respect in ministry, but I disagree with 100% on this.
When I see a $20MM dollar buidling erected in the name of Jesus Christ and I see my brothers and sisters across the globe starving then there is a disconnect for me somewhere. I don’t know where but I can’t understand that. So instead of laying at someone elses feet I give it directly, so I know 70% ain’t skimmed off of the top.
I did I will republish it. I took it down.
Yes, amen to the matter of $20M buildings, that in itself is NOT good stewardship. There definately IS a disconnect, because if there are people who don’t have food or clothing or shelter somewhere in the world, then that need should definately come before our desire to have any kind of special venue to meet with other Christians in. We already have buildings to meet in, they’re called houses, and here in America, even a modestly-sized apartment is large compared to what most people in the world live in…..
Just had to chime in here…
Hey Lionel,
Good catch. I wanted to express that in the corporate world of CEO’s and Managers, not the church. Church organizations have a different manual than those who work for Target or Microsoft. Sorry about the mix up.
When we look at the finances of the church local, I think we sometimes forget the church universal. Paul was good at universal distribution for the sake of the gospel. In the business world to whom I am accustomed, I see all kinds of collaborations. Most people hardly understand the insurance industry, in how they pool monies together to pay for major claims from. They in essence insure their insurance.
In the church universal, our insurance is our faith and Christ has ensured our survival by the works of our own as well as our brother and sisters hands. We have to move past the fundemental efforts to fund ministry and go back to the basic elements of ministry, therfore reducing the overhead and the need to pursue other means of funding besides what the bible calls freely giving as we have recieved or having all things in common or giving to the needs of our brothers and sisters. We truly have all things needed when we look at the overall resources of the church universal.
Thanks Brother Cochran, I wish more local congregations thought about being “members” of the Body (Church universal).
I get sooooooo frustrated with black Christians, who want to be called “African-Americans” and yet have NO concern for missiological advance on the African continent. They aren’t African-Americans – they just “black.”
I have internal discomfort (upset stomach) when a congregation can build a $1.4 million dollar building but cannot help a Kenyan brother buy a $30,000 Toyota Rava, so he can do ministry in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Also, don’t balk at helping a brother buy $10,000 worth of land so he can feed the 50-60 orphans he houses due to AIDS orphans. American Christians have some serious stewardship issues to consider as we look at the Church global.
That said, Daniel, are there any scenarios where a building purchase would make biblical sense for a gathered congregation?
SB,
$1.4M is chump change brother. If you ain’t pushing in the mid tens you are a scrub. LOL.
I will also say to your question to Daniel. Maybe. If we could build a functional building. Used to feed and house the homeless, put a clinic in their for flu shots and small medical care, have a place where people can have functions there, and maybe even summer programs for the less fortunate, then I will say yes. But since those things are always done outside of the “church” then my answer is no. I rather give directly to those who are doing that, rather than have 70-80% cut off the top.
Have I driven that point home….. not have I drove…
Good points, thanks!